Asia-Pacific III 2009 (16)

Theme: Shrinking equipment, a shrinking world

The advance of information and communication technology is largely due to doing more with less, to shrinking the unshrinkable just a little bit more. Shrinking brings lower prices, greater reliability, lower power usage and more functionality in less space. More importantly, the shrinking process is putting the world in the pockets of more and more people each day. Not everyone can afford a PC or a laptop. Many people have limited access to reliable sources of power and fewer have access to the Internet. Nevertheless, shrinking, ever lower-cost devices with easy to feed power requirements promise to bring the world, education and social services to the pockets of most of the world’s inhabitants within the coming decade; the process is already well underway. This issue of Connect-World Asia Pacific will look into the revolutionary shrinking of devices and the equally revolutionary explosion of hope and possibilities this will bring for the region’s businesses and inhabitants.